Development Impacts

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Development Impacts

Migration is recognized as an important vehicle for boosting development in both countries of immigrant origin and destination, and policymakers increasingly are seeking to use immigration policy to foster economic and social development at national levels and on the global stage, for example through the United Nations' 2013 High-Level Dialogue on International Migration and Development and the European Union's Global Approach to Migration and Mobility. The research here examines migration's varied development impacts and role of migrants as agents of innovation.

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Along with increased trade and Chinese investment in Africa has come new migration between the two regions. Malia Politzer places this movement in context and looks at the types of Chinese migrants going to Africa and the Africans going to China.

Migrants' networks and relatively small travel distances help explain migration from one developing country to another. Dilip Ratha and William Shaw of the World Bank look at these and other reasons for and effects of South-South migration.

Most migrants living and working in developing countries come from other developing countries. Dilip Ratha and William Shaw of the World Bank analyze data on this type of migration, known as South-South, and estimate the amount of South-South remittances and their cost.

While Ethiopians have long followed seasonal migration patterns within the Horn of Africa, it was only after the political upheavals of the 1970s that they began to settle in the West, as MPI's Aaron Matteo Terrazas reports.

Mexico has often been cited as a successful example of the positive relationship between migration and development. But Raúl Delgado-Wise and Luis Eduardo Guarnizo show why Mexico's model is unsustainable.

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This brief explores how governments in Asia are facilitating diaspora contributions, including creation of conducive legal frameworks and diaspora-centered institutions to initiation of programs that specifically target diasporas as development actors.

Thailand is well positioned to take advantage of the benefits of migration. This brief examines the country’s migration challenges and two basic approaches to regularizing labor migration: Memoranda of Understanding with migrant-sending neighbors and nationality verification as a preliminary step for work permit application by unauthorized immigrants.

This report summarizes the economic and social development policy achievements of Central American countries over the past 20 years, as well as the notable obstacles to development that remain. The author identifies long-term challenges and outlines how they can be incorporated into a new development agenda.

The 2012 Global Diaspora Forum challenged diaspora communities to forge partnerships with the private sector, civil society, and public institutions in order to make their engagements with their countries of origin or ancestry effective, scalable, and sustainable.

This discussion highlights the best practices and experiences of different countries in engaging and maximizing the contributions that diasporas can and do make to the development of their country of origin, and more broadly the experience of policymakers in both sending and receiving countries and the related challenges and opportunities they face.

This discussion includes a status of preparation of the 2012 GFMD summit, including a discussion on the possible ideas and projects presently being contemplated that would fully integrate migration into the development framework, with a special focus on Africa.

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Free Book Download: Diasporas: New Partners in Global Development Policy

​The volume, which examines the development impact of diasporas in six critical areas—entrepreneurship, investment in country-of-origin capital markets, heritage tourism and trade, philanthropy, volunteering, and advocacy—is now available to download for free in its entirety.